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Often, native speakers tell me my use of a pronoun isn't wrong but it doesn't sound good or quite right. I don't have a native ear. How can I tell? For example, I was told that "ones" and "that" don't sound good. But why?

Alternative medicines and treatments take time to work, whereas conventional ones are developed to work fast.

I was told better to use this version:

Alternative medicines and treatments take time to work, whereas conventional medical treatments are developed to work fast.

Another example:

The graph compares the number of store openings with that of closures in one country between 2011 and 2018.

I was told better to repeat "number":

The graph compares the number of store openings with the number of closures in one country between 2011 and 2018.

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    Ones and that sound fine to me. Unfortunately, I feel like this question might be too general to be answered, if the person did not say why they thought these words didn't seem right.
    – stangdon
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 13:50
  • Thank you very much. In the first example, I was told better to use "conventional medical treatments" instead of "ones". In the second example, I was told better to repeat "number": the number of closures.
    – newbie forever
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 13:56
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    It sounds like you have better English than some of the people offering you advice.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 14:04

1 Answer 1

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There is, in my view, nothing at all wrong with the sentence:

Alternative medicines and treatments take time to work, whereas conventional ones are developed to work fast.

Indeed, I incline to think it is better English than the suggested alternative:

Alternative medicines and treatments take time to work, whereas conventional medical treatments are developed to work fast.

(Minor point not addressed in the question, a word such as "rapidly" or "quickly" might read better than "fast" in either sentence.)

In the case of the sentence:

The graph compares the number of store openings with that of closures in one country between 2011 and 2018.

I think that the word "that" is sufficiently far from its referent "number" that a rewrite night be a good idea. One could repeat the word number, as suggested, or use a construction such as:

The graph compares the number of store openings and closures in one country between 2011 and 2018.

This makes the parallelism between "openings" and "closures" clearer, and avoids the possible probl;em of a reader being confused about the referent of "that".

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  • Thank you very much but I don't understand this version: The graph compares the number of store openings and closures in one country between 2011 and 2018. Why is the singular "number" used? I think you can only compare two numbers. Why isn't the plural "numbers" used?
    – newbie forever
    Commented Aug 23, 2022 at 8:22
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    @Learner110 Yes, one compares two numbers, or as here, two sets of numbers. In this form as is common, repeated parallel elements are left out: The graph compares the number of store openings and [the number of] closures in one country. One could use a plural form "the numbers of" because multiple years are involved, but I preferred the singular because there is one number for openings (and one for closings) in each year.
    – David Siegel
    Commented Aug 23, 2022 at 15:53
  • Thank you very much.
    – newbie forever
    Commented Aug 23, 2022 at 16:26

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